<html> Dave, Kawai uses mainly Suzuki wire in the Japanese made upright pianos like your K-50, Mapes wire in the US made pianos, like the 606 you mentioned, and Roslau wire in the grands. Wire breakage is pretty rare in new pianos, but it does happen here and there.  You just got lucky, I guess!  Strings are sometimes weakened in the factory by workers pushing to finish that stringing job quickly, and they sometimes get a little rough with the machinery. Yes, broken strings in new pianos would be covered under the warranty.  Write to me with the models and serial numbers at the office at dmannino@kawaius.com, and let me know your mailing address and such.  Or call (800) 421-2177 and ask for me. Don Mannino RPT Kawai America (writing from home) At 07:35 PM 6/6/2002 -0400, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>List, and Kawai reps therein, In the last 3 months, I have tuned many Kawai pianos, both at one of the stores I work for and at customer's homes.  Most are quite pleasant to work on, if a bit sharp when uncrated. Today I had a warranty tuning on a Kawai K-50e, a higher end upright piano.  I seated the strings, then started tuning.  It was about 10-15 cents sharp throughout.  While coming back down the treble strings, a 15 gauge wire broke, right next to the break.  I'd say that this was an anomaly, but two months ago, the same thing happened on a 606 console, that time on note #88.  I was pleased that, in both cases, the strings were not in an understrung section.  Replacements were relatively easy to deal with. Does anyone know what kind of wire Kawai uses?  Do they make their own?  Are there defective batches?  In my off and on tuning career of the last 20+ years, those are the only strings I've ever broken on new pianos.  And is this covered under the manufacturer's warranty??? Thanks, Dave Stahl </blockquote></html>